Alice & Zoroku marries the innocence of sweetness & light or Barakamon to secretive laboratory hijinks a la Elfen Lied for an interesting hybrid anime that has a lot of different places it can go. At 45 minutes long, it’s also one of the lengthier premieres this season, but Alice & Zoroku manages to keep the pace brisk, the stakes high and the plot intriguing -- for the most part.
While the Alice in Wonderland motif is old as hell and the idea of secret government research labs and conspiracies has been done to death, Alice & Zoroku brings in a slice-of-life, parent-and-child element with a twist: the “parent” figure is in fact a gruff old grandparent who may well be the heart of the show.
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Episode 1 of Alice & Zoroku starts off with a high-stakes pursuit of a young girl that appears to be the subject of some kind of long-term laboratory investigation. Called “The Red Queen” by the research facility and “Sana” by her peers, her ability involves some form of “jumping” from place to place. While she’s on the run, a mysterious third party appears who covers Sana’s escape and tells her to jump to the biggest city she can think of and start a big commotion there.
In that city, Sana encounters an old man named Zoroku and tries to make a magical girl-esque deal with him, promising to grant any wish he wants. She eventually accompanies him in his car, only for a massive chase to break out as two platinum-haired sisters from the facility wield their abilities to try and bring Sana back. (Unfortunately, the CG would look terrible even in Veggie Tales .)
The chase winds up with Zoroku in a crashed car and Sana yelling about how she won’t be dragged back to the research lab to live as a lab rat. Rather than being intimidated by all the supernatural shenanigans, Zoroku hands out a thump on the head to each girl for their recklessness and scolds them for causing a ruckus.
He continues to scold them for how many people could have been hurt or even killed. All the girls listen in frightened and respectful awe. The entire crowd applauds at this display of grandfatherly mastery.
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At the police station, all the girls as well as the old man are interrogated. Then Zoroku’s interrogator is called into another room to review the footage of the interview with Sana, who disappears in the middle of her interview. The interrogator is flabbergasted, especially when his partner admits that the twins were taken away by a sponsor and they are under orders from above to drop the case.
In fact, not only is the old man’s car miraculously restored, no photos or video of the incident remain anywhere and all property damage has been reverted. Zoroku is free to go.
At a diner later that night, Sana pops up again to explain without being asked that all the ability-users are known as “Dreams of Alice.” She doesn’t know how they come to be, but by using visions called “Mirror Gates,” they can materialize any one thing they imagine. Zoroku doesn’t really care about all these details but does feed Sana serving upon serving of dinner; activating the Mirror Gate takes energy, so she’s a hungry gal. But Sana, inexperienced in the real world, can’t even hold her chopsticks right.
Zoroku finally asks her what kind of deal she wants to make. Sana’s goal is to crush the research facility that has tormented her. They walk together through Shinjuku and to a nearby shrine, where the old man says that for a little while he’ll take care of her, but she must work for her place. He adds that he won’t baby her, tells her not to use her dangerous power anymore and says he won’t be accepting any deals.
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Meanwhile, one of the folks in charge of the research facility explains to what seems like a group of government officials that the Red Queen has created a Wonderland beneath the facility where all the children play, filled with whimsical live creatures created by the children. He explains that there are two problems: one is that the bearer of this power is a child, and the other is that the Red Queen is a valuable sample of her ability and her loss is a huge detriment not simply to the facility but to the whole country. Blah blah government conspiracy, yadda yadda secret capture, we’ve seen all this before.
Sana, now very sleepy, gets out of a cab with Zoroku and they arrive at his workplace, where he tells her to wait while he checks on the prep. It’s a flower shop, and in the premiere’s most touching moment, Sana is stunned by the beauty and color of all the flowers. Finally, Zoroku takes her to his apartment, where she falls dead asleep in his granddaughter’s room before he can even get her some PJs.
The character art and animation is nothing to write home about, but if Alice & Zoroku continues to focus on its two protagonists instead of fairly garden-variety supernatural trappings and government hoopla, it’ll be a pleasant enough way to wile away the time. I don’t expect much more from Sana than a generically likable child character, so it falls on Zoroku to be the show’s lynchpin. If the premiere is anything to go by, the gruff florist may just manage it.
